Semantic processor for recognition of whole-part relations in natural language documents

A computer-based method for generating a Whole-Part knowledge base by automatically recognizing Whole-Part relations in natural language documents, the method comprising:

• providing a database having a plurality of stored generic Whole-Part relationship patterns as models for determining Whole-Part relations of the outside world in external natural language documents, wherein each generic Whole-Part relationship pattern identifies:
• a sense of one or more components of an expanded Subject-Action-Object (eSAO) and whether or not at least two other components of the eSAO are non-empty;
• and
• which components of the eSAO act as a Whole eSAO and which components act as a Part eSAO in a Whole-Part relation;
• providing text from at least one natural language document;
• recognizing one or more eSAO sets in the text, wherein each eSAO set has one or more eSAO components;
• matching the one or more eSAO sets against generic Whole-Part relationship patterns comprising Whole-Part indicators, including determining if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set and, if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set, determining which eSAO component is a Whole eSAO and which is a Part eSAO;
• generating one or more eSAO Whole-Part relations based on the matching, wherein the eSAO Whole-Part relation comprises a Whole eSAO and an Part eSAO;
• and
• storing the one or more eSAO Whole-Part relations in the Whole-Part knowledge base.

A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for recognizing Whole-Part relations in natural language documents, the method comprising:

• accessing a database having a plurality of stored generic Whole-Part relationship patterns as models for determining Whole-Part relations of the outside world in external natural language documents, wherein each generic Whole-Part relationship pattern identifies:
• a sense of one or more components of an expanded Subject-Action-Object (eSAO) and whether or not other components of the eSAO are non-empty;
• and
• which components of the eSAO act as a Whole eSAO and which components act as a Part eSAO in a Whole-Part relation;
• providing text from at least one natural language document;
• recognizing one or more eSAO sets in the text, wherein each eSAO set has one or more eSAO components;
• matching the one or more eSAO sets against generic Whole-Part relationship patterns comprising whole-part indicators, including determining if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set and, if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set, determining which eSAO component of the eSAO set is a Whole eSAO and which is a Part eSAO;
• generating one or more eSAO Whole-Part relations based on the matching, wherein the eSAO Whole-Part relation comprises a Whole eSAO and an Part eSAO.

A semantic processor for automatically recognizing Whole-Part relations in text in electronic or digital form, the semantic processor comprising:

• a linguistic knowledge base having a plurality of stored generic Whole-Part relationship patterns as models for determining Whole-Part relations of the outside world in external natural language documents, wherein each generic Whole-Part relationship pattern identifies:
• a sense of one or more components of an expanded Subject-Action-Object (eSAO) and whether or not other components of the eSAO are non-empty;
• and
• which components of the eSAO act as a Whole eSAO and which components act as a Part eSAO in a Whole-Part relation;
• and
• a semantic analyzer comprising:
• an expanded subject-action-object (eSAO) recognizer for producing one or more eSAO sets based on the text, wherein the eSAO sets are based on eSAO definitions stored in the linguistic knowledge base;
• and
• a Whole-Part recognizer configured to match the one or more eSAO sets with known generic Whole-Part relationship patterns comprising Whole-Part indicators stored in the linguistic knowledge base, including determining if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set and, if the eSAO component sense and non-empty requirements of a generic Whole-Part relationship pattern are satisfied by an eSAO set, determining which eSAO component of the eSAO set is a Whole eSAO and which is a Part eSAO and to produce one or more eSAO Whole-Part relations based on the match.